BRIEF REPORT Washing Away Your (Good or Bad) Luck: Physical Cleansing Affects Risk-Taking Behavior

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General Washing Away Your (Good or Bad) Luck: Physical Cleansing Affects Risk-Taking Behavior

Washing away your (good or bad) luck: physical cleansing affects risk-taking behavior.

Many superstitious practices entail the belief that good or bad luck can be "washed away." Consistent with this belief, participants who recalled (Experiment 1) or experienced (Experiment 2) an episode of bad luck were more willing to take risk after having as opposed to not having washed their hands, whereas participants who recalled or experienced an episode of good luck were less willing to ...

Washing away your sins: threatened morality and physical cleansing.

Physical cleansing has been a focal element in religious ceremonies for thousands of years. The prevalence of this practice suggests a psychological association between bodily purity and moral purity. In three studies, we explored what we call the "Macbeth effect"-that is, a threat to one's moral purity induces the need to cleanse oneself. This effect revealed itself through an increased mental...

Hand Washing Induces a Clean Slate Effect in Moral Judgments: A Pupillometry and Eye-Tracking Study

Physical cleansing is commonly understood to protect us against physical contamination. However, recent studies showed additional effects on moral judgments. Under the heading of the "Macbeth effect" direct links between bodily cleansing and one's own moral purity have been demonstrated. Here we investigate (1) how moral judgments develop over time and how they are altered by hand washing, (2) ...

Washing the guilt away: effects of personal versus vicarious cleansing on guilty feelings and prosocial behavior

For centuries people have washed away their guilt by washing their hands. Do people need to wash their own hands, or is it enough to watch other people wash their hands? To induce guilt, we had participants write about a past wrong they had committed. Next, they washed their hands, watched a washing-hands video, or watched a typing-hands video. After the study was over, participants could help ...